Women are an important part of our society. In order to maintain the natural balance of the society both, men and women need to have their own power and ability take their own decision. But unfortunately, this is not the reality of the society today. Today women are suffering from many problems and issues. These issues are hampering the women from progressing and have become impediments in their way of success and development. Women face problems like violence, sexual harassment, dowry system, child marriage, female infanticide, eve teasing, rapes, domestic abuse and many others in their day to day life.

Students are the future citizens of the society and hence they should be made aware of the problems faced by women in society. Hence many times students are asked to write an essay, speech, paragraph on various events and occasions. In this article, we have given you all the information to write an essay, speech on problems and issues faced by women in the society such as dowry, domestic abuse, unequal pay, gender inequality, violence, sexual harassment, eve teasing, rapes and many others. This information will put the light on various issues of women, the history of those problems, the causes and reasons behind those problems, effects of the problems and the solutions and ways to reduce and eradicate those problems. So let’s start.

Problems Faced by Women in Society Essay, Speech, Paragraph and Article in the English Language

Introduction

Women’s problems however backdated it sounds remains one of the most unfortunate realities of our times. Today’s youth have a moral obligation to find a way to bring the next generations out of the scourge of such practice. Before proceeding to the solutions, it is helpful to understand the basis of women and the various problems faced by them.

History Of Women’s Problems

Across the globe, the role women played remained more or less similar in the fact that in most cases, women were seen as the childbearing and child rearing agent with little functional roles that affected or touched public life and spaces. Forget women franchise in voting or financial rights, from Britain to Germany to China, despite movements of Renaissance that led to the advent of reason, even then women were naturally seen as subjects inferior to the men population.

In India, traditionally women assumed a secondary role as upper castes associated women with purity and thus there was the need to protect the purity. Such an understanding ultimately gave rise to regressive thought process including Purdah, Sati system. The understanding stemmed from the biological interpretation of primitive social order where men by the virtue of being stronger were meant to play the role of the protector and females born physically weaker was supposed to lend gentleness at home.

Even though the world progressed from primitive to feudal to Renaissance to Industrial to post-colonial phase, even then feminism could hardly make a difference till as late as the 1950s. It was only after the Second World War, that women were being recognized to be equal to men by the means of access to the property, voting rights and equal right to work.

In spite of all recognition, problems faced by women continued to rage as a reality. Whether in the form of pay gap or doubled up labor to be given to both house and workplace or the immense stress of performance at every stage, problems faced by women are raw and relevant on an everyday basis.

Causes, Reasons behind Problems Faced By Women

That women face hurdles in almost every stage of their life is a known thing. However, if one ponders hard the reasons that come up seem obsolete given that we live in the 21st century. Nevertheless, quite tragically the causes remain totally relevant and become the ground reality for most women across the globe.

Insufficient access to economic resources:

Till date, most countries do not legislate equal property rights for women. This implies that whether the woman is liable to inherit something or wants to give a share of her own earnings to her chosen sector, she will not be allowed so. In most cases, brothers have a share in father’s property while husband decides the fate of a wife’s earnings.

Unequal access to political resources:

Several countries do not support the universal franchise for women. Which implies that they do not go to vote or are influenced by male voters of her family. Therefore, in the long run, they sideline themselves from accessing to various welfare schemes available for them due to lack of awareness and courage to make a political or legal step.

The gap in salary structure:

For the same job a man and a woman does, most countries tend to pay marginally or significantly less to the woman employee. Even corporate houses follow a similar practice of discriminatory salary. In the long run, the wide pay gap ensures that for the same amount of work done, the woman has lesser savings and equal expenditure.

The culture of violence against women:

Across the globe, women are subject to the higher degree of violence as a result of deeply rooted patriarchal culture. Most men feel women exist for reproduction only and it is legally and morally okay to hit and abuse her. This becomes the basis why beating a wife is often pacified as ‘natural’ even by women themselves. A deep inherent sense of patriarchal thought process cultivated across a long time sensitizes the illegal to be a customary evil.

Low level of education:

Given the fact that even now most women are viewed as the tool to make babies and progress bloodline, even today female education is prioritized much behind male education. The general idea is to keep the woman less aware of her legal position in society so that it is easy for men and elders to coerce them into submission. Thus even though a woman might want to complain about her condition, yet her lack of knowledge will not allow her to take the decisive step.

The higher burden of domestic responsibilities:

Even today the primary duty of a woman remains towards her domestic household. Even for working women, it is expected that the woman will do outside job only once her domestic duties have been fulfilled. Most women cannot cope with the pressure of managing both children, household as well as the workplace and mostly the workplace is forced to be resigned.

Thus, the causes for problems faced by women remains deeply disturbing as well as widespread.

Sexual Harassment and Eve Teasing

Over 50 percent of the female population on an average across the globe face the terror called sexual harassmentand eve teasing. In India, owing to the deep male-dominated culture, almost 75 percent women face sexual harassment on a yearly basis. Workplace harassment is a major issue where often bosses hold the power to manipulate a woman threatening her with sacking in order to obtain sexual favors.

Eve teasing made popular with films and rampant objectification of women is another horror most women have to put up with on a daily basis. Public spaces or private, sexual harassment often happens with the offender being a known person to the woman in question. Such issues more than anything else creates immense pressure on the woman’s mind.

Gender Discrimination

The reality for most women across the world is an acute sense of discrimination vis a vis their male counterparts. At home, women are viewed primarily as the working labor without a say in important and tangible matters say financial decisions and role in property matters. Further, even though a woman might not be biologically fit enough yet due to lack of reproductive right and awareness, she might be forced to bear children. At workplace too, pay parity exists in few domains. Further, in case of sexual crimes, most offices do not have adequate measures in place to register complaints specific to women. In public spaces, women are often assigned a role of beauty, aestheticism without the recognition of their rights and self-respect.

Dowry and Bride Burning

The malice of dowry exists predominantly in South Asia and in India, the issue has a more profound impact than other countries. The practice of giving dowry in exchange for marrying off a girl to a suitable groom, not only commodifies a woman but also encourages the society into believing that unless a woman can bring the free property into a groom’s house, her status will not be uplifted.

Often in India, the denial of giving or receiving dowry results in social shame and continuous violence against the bride at the hands of her in-laws and husbands. In 1980s hundreds of cases were registered where brides were burnt as they could not bring the necessary dowry with them.

Child Marriage

A girl child is often viewed as a marriageable property in several parts of India like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Incidents of girl child marriage take place even till date and resistance by girls is often quashed under parental force. Most girls do not even get the opportunity to prevent the marriage and as a result, are forced to start a family and bear children as a result of getting married prematurely.

Selective Abortion and Female Infanticide

Several countries across the world indulge in the horrific practice of sex-selective abortion and resultant female foeticide or infanticide. Preference for a male child in countries like India, China, Nepal has resulted in a skewed demographic statistics in those countries. AS per 2011 census, there were only 940 females per 1000 males in India. In 1994, India took legislation to ban the practice of selective sex determination before birth in order to tackle this problem. However, even till date quack medical centers, illegal ultrasound trade continues this practice and run a business at the cost of ever deteriorating sex ratio in the country. As the system of dowry still exists, therefore in most cases the birth of a girl child is seen as an economic burden which is best prevented by her death.

Domestic Violence

Despite steps towards economic liberalism and women entering in greater numbers in the labor force, the issue of domestic violence still haunts most women in the confines of home. Coming in various forms of emotional abuse, economic denial, and physical violence, domestic violence is an issue that remains much under-addressed and unresolved. Often, as victims are tied to their family for reasons like children, their welfare, social stigma, lack of financial support, they fall under a vicious cycle of exploitation and subjugation. In India, various acts and laws were passed in order to help women achieve quick redressal. The 498A Act of the Indian Penal Code made domestic violence an offense for immediate arrest. However, the Act was amended due to various exploitations in a wrongful manner.

Social Media Harassment

About one-third of women internationally face the recent spate of social network harassment. Cyberbullying is the latest bug to hit the deep male dominated socio cultural pattern. Shaming of young teenage girls for their liberal choice of dress or conduct gives the presumption of being available for easy sexual favors. Given the universal access to social media platforms irrespective of educational and cultural backgrounds, cyber molestation and shaming is currently a non-deniable aspect of the youth. The various ways in which girls are targeted for their gender includes shaming them over western liberal outlook or being fashionable or implying them of sexual provocation by sending lewd messages. All these are various ways in which bullying is yet another problem faced by women across the globe.

Inadequate Nutrition

Women, more often than not become victims of undernourishment despite the fact that they do almost an equal share of physical work and labor. Anemia is a leading cause of neo natal death in women. Most women, especially belonging to low-income group sector, suffer from several nutritional deficiencies which are mostly attributed to lack of time after domestic duties, the custom of eating after the male members have completed, illiteracy in scientific nourishment ideas. All such aspects make them not only malnourished but raise pregnancy complications affecting even the newborn child. Nutritional deficiency is a much-neglected aspect of discussion while dealing with problems faced by women, which is all the more important as a well-fed woman is naturally stronger and can execute her responsibilities better.

Effects Of Problems Faced By Women

As it can be derived from the long discussion above, the multifarious problems pinning down women in the various sector remains a reality. The effects of such problems are even more complex. Some of them include:

Traumatic Disorder and Other Mental Issues:

Currently, more women face post-traumatic disorders and other mental troubles than men. This can be directly attributed to the various forms of abuse specific only to women.

Lack of confidence and passing on to next generation:

A mother who faces trauma is also likely to lack the confidence to both embolden her child or embolden herself to resist. More often than not daughters of battered mothers run the risk of facing similar mental frame.

Lack of Education:

The problem runs mostly because most women stay less educated. On account of problems, they have even lesser access to education as mostly men or family prohibits them from having it and therefore they tend to make it a natural affair of getting exploited.

Solutions For Addressing Women’s Problems

Across the globe, the United Nations works under several heads in order to solve the problems faced by women. The 57th Status Report on the Commission for the status of women recognized the importance of achieving gender equality and ending gender violence across the globe. It also works under Partners of Prevention Acts where various NGOs and other related bodies coordinate their work in order to achieve a universal standard of preventing problems of women.

In India, several measures and steps were taken post Independence to address the issue of women. The establishment of National Commission For Women in 2010, Swamsidhya Programme where women self-help groups were encouraged to form under a substantial financial sanction by the government, various acts including death for dowry case or special cyber cells to take care of cyberbullying, all these are the tools which women can always use effectively to address their problems.

Conclusion

Women are an essential part of our society and they deserve equal rights and opportunities. To create a happy and loving environment for women we need to eradicate the problems faced by women. The government should take necessary steps to stop the crimes against women and it is our moral responsibility at an individual level to contribute in abolishing the crimes against women.

I hope you liked this essay, article about problems faced by women in society. If yes then please rate this article with 5 stars and leave a comment in the comment section below. Thank you. 🙂

About the author

Ajay Chavan

Hey guys! I am Ajay Chavan, a small town guy walking down the path to my dream. A hell-bent person who never gives up.
I love to write about stuff that makes a difference in someone's life.
And Hey! I am also the Co-Founder and COO of TeenAtHeart.